When Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced the five stages of grief in 1969, she provided an understanding of the complex reactions people use as coping mechanisms for severe loss.
The five stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — don’t always occur exclusively, or even in order, and though they were originally identified to assist people struggling with death, they also apply to other significant experiences, such as the loss of a job, a theft or the breakup of a relationship. That lattermost situation is the source of grief in Drew Parker’s “Love the Leavin’,” featuring a desperate singer in the bargaining stage, attempting to negotiate his way out of a broken heart.
“It is definitely exactly where it lives,” Parker says.
He created “Love the Leavin’” in February during a co-write with Matt Rogers (“ ’Til You Can’t,” “Freedom Was a Highway”) at the Middle Tennessee home of Lindsay Rimes (“World on Fire,” “Cool Again”). Parker had finished recording his debut album — Camouflage Cowboy, released July 12 — so it was a low-pressure appointment. He brought up the title, written in his notes as “Love the Leavin’ (Out of You),” initially believing it should be witty and uptempo, an “I hate to see you go, love to watch you leave kind of thing,” Parker says.
